Lemma Soft Forums

I'm just wondering, if most people agree that the original VNs are better than their anime adaptations, why bother making anime of them after all?

The only examples of better anime is Shuffle and Kiminozo...but they could just have well rewritten their scenarios and released improved versions.

Of course, I'm just playing devil's advocate. If it weren't for anime adaptations I wouldn't have discovered visual novels in the first place

But now that I get more fluent in the medium, and I recall recent anime that I have watched, basically any of the best stories in anime could have been made as visual novels for a far cheaper cost...there would be less audience, true, but there shouldn't be any technical limitations anymore. For example, with action stories, you can make use of full animation such as what Overflow does.

I think the answer is somewhat simple: Because the makers of the original VN get money for selling the story for the animation companies. Besides, since anime is widely spread, they'll get fame as well, meaning that their products will sell better. So I think it's all about getting some ¥¥¥. and some more ¥¥¥, and a lot of ¥¥¥. The animation companies do it for getting money as well, because if a story sells well as a visual novel, it sells a lot as a "quite okay" anime version.

Yeah, I'd say it's simply publicity (since anime has a much wider audience than VNs) and cash.

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Author of Elven Relations (IntRenAiMo 2007), When I Rule The World (NaNoRenO 2005), Cloud Fairy (Cute Light & Fluffy, 2009), the TileEngine and UnitEngine (LSF@5), and the fantasy novel Ultimate Dream (NaNoWriMo 2006 onwards).
In development (progress slow but ongoing):
Elven Relations 2: Mermaid Liaisons: Story 96% done, script 75% done, character art 95% done, event CGs 60% done, backgrounds 50% done, customisation 0% done; demo available

Others have said it, I agree. VN -> anime is about money.

It may be about other things as well, but they are very much secondary, probably more like positive side-effects of the conversion, than actual motivations for the conversion.

Just as an aside here - I thoroughly enjoyed the Tsukihime anime series. I never played the VN, but standing alone it was a great little thing... and yet more or less everyone I've heard from who played the game hates it.

It always winds me up a little when people complain that X is crap because it was based on Y and isn't the same - just being the same doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. I mean - the Blade Runner movie bears so little relation to the book it was based on that when they released that point-and-click videogame in the late 90s that was far more similar to the original story, it seemed like a totally new plot... but who's going to turn around and say that Blade Runner sucked?

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I've heard this line is used often for corporate business meetings. I wonder if that's true.

Anyway, gotta agree with everyone else, it's all about the money.

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How do you make your games? I see. Thank you for the prompt replies, but it is my considered opinion that you're doing it wrong inefficiently because I am a perfushenal professional. Do it my way this way and we can all ascend VN Nirvana together while allowing me to stroke my ego you will improve much faster. Also, please don't forget to thank me for this constructive critique or I will cry and bore you to death respond appropriately with a tl;dr rant discourse of epic adequately lengthy proportions. - Sarcasm Veiled in Euphemism: Secrets of Forum Civility by lordcloudx (Coming soon to an online ebook near you.)

Speaking from the point of view of software programming, it's a vital part of the process; you have a problem, you solve the problem, but your solution's only half-finished until you've considered all the stupid and/or malicious things the user might try to do with it and covered them all. Only thinking of the obvious/intended scenario is fatally negligent - I imagine the same methodology transfers across to running a business pretty well.

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I see, that makes sense.

Here's an excerpt from the article I read about that line.

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How do you make your games? I see. Thank you for the prompt replies, but it is my considered opinion that you're doing it wrong inefficiently because I am a perfushenal professional. Do it my way this way and we can all ascend VN Nirvana together while allowing me to stroke my ego you will improve much faster. Also, please don't forget to thank me for this constructive critique or I will cry and bore you to death respond appropriately with a tl;dr rant discourse of epic adequately lengthy proportions. - Sarcasm Veiled in Euphemism: Secrets of Forum Civility by lordcloudx (Coming soon to an online ebook near you.)

One thing I remember reading was that at one time creative minds in Japan where dedicated to manga and anime. Over time, new mediums popped up and talent went to them. Essentially, the brains got spread thin.

Less creative talent means more time to produce something. It is much more appealing to use an existing franchise, in this case VNs where the majority of creative work is already done.

Therefore, work already done = less time, which then means saving money. So I guess it is all about money then.

While costs may be lower, you still need a sizable market to become profitable. As of now, only the bishoujo genre is regarded as being viable (and even then, companies like 0verflow have been hurting for cash, so there're problems all around).